In What’s Our Problem?, popular blogger Tim Urban dives deep into the complexities of modern society, exploring topics like tribalism, politics, and human behavior. Through a unique framework and engaging storytelling, Urban provides a fresh perspective on the world, encouraging readers to examine not just what they think, but how they think, both individually and collectively. This thought-provoking book promises to change the way you view the world around you.
Here are my favorite twelve takeaways from the book:
1. Be careful with technology
“Because technology is exponential. More advanced societies make progress at a faster rate than less advanced societies—because they’re more advanced… As the times get better, they also get more dangerous. More technology makes our species more powerful, which increases risk. And the scary thing is, if the good and bad keep exponentially growing, it doesn’t matter how great the good times become. If the bad gets to a certain level of bad, it’s all over for us.“
2. You can’t change a Zealot’s mind
“When Zealots argue, things can quickly get heated, because for someone who identifies with their ideas, a challenge to those ideas feels like an insult. It feels personally invalidating. A punch landed on a Zealot’s idea is a punch landed on their baby… When the Primitive Mind is overactive in our heads, it turns us into crazy people. On top of making us think our ideas are babies, it shows us a distorted view of ourselves. And it shows us a distorted view of the world. While the Scientist’s clear mind sees a foggy world, full of complexity and nuance and messiness, the Zealot’s foggy mind shows them a clear, simple world, full of crisp lines and black-and-white distinctions. When you’re thinking like a Zealot, you end up in a totally alternative reality, feeling like you’re an omniscient being in total possession of the truth.“
3. People are more effective in an Idea Lab environment
“Idea Labs place a high regard on humility, and saying “I don’t know” usually wins trust and respect. When someone who often says “I don’t know” does express conviction about a viewpoint, it really means something, and others will take it to heart without too much skepticism needed—which saves the listener time and effort… People in an Idea Lab don’t usually take arguments personally because Idea Lab culture is built around the core notion that people and ideas are separate things. People are meant to be respected, ideas are meant to be batted around and picked apart.“
4. The tradeoff between rights and restrictions
“Rights and restrictions are mutually exclusive: protecting citizens from a certain kind of behavior is also a decision to prohibit that behavior. Likewise, every freedom granted to citizens is something citizens will have to live with others doing. That’s why Liberal Games freedom isn’t really freedom as much as it’s a freedom-safety compromise. What matters is harm: if an action is harmful, citizens must be protected from it; if it’s not harmful, it’s a right that must itself be protected.“
5. Lawful societies fight with carrots instead of cudgels
“The Liberal Games are driven by human nature, just like the Power Games are. But in the Liberal Games, a key limitation is added into the environment: You can’t use physical force to get what you want. Where the Power Games did business by way of the cudgel, the Liberal Games would be all about persuasion. If I want something you have, but I’m not allowed to get it by physically bullying you, then the only option I’m left with is to get you to give it to me voluntarily. And since you’re self-interested too, the only way you’ll do that is if I can come up with a “carrot”—a piece of value I can offer—that you want more than the resource I want from you. Removing the cudgel from the game-playing options (or, rather, adding in harsh-enough penalties for it that coercion becomes an undesirable game-playing strategy) changes the game from a contest of who can be the scariest, the most dangerous, and the most intimidating, to a contest of who can provide the most value to their fellow citizens.“
6. Polarized societies become more extreme
“the only way areas stay diverse—racially, ethnically, politically—is if people prefer diversity significantly more than they dislike being in the minority… Today, the parties have become proxies for two vast macro-cultures, so seeking out people like you also often means ending up surrounded by people who share your politics… When people are surrounded by ideologically homogeneous groups, their views become more extreme.“
7. Cancel culture is idea supremacy in action
“An idea supremacist tries to enforce their Echo Chamber upon a much wider space. A classroom, a company, a social media platform. The most egregious form of idea supremacy happens in places that center around high-rung culture—places where free speech and open discourse are core values, necessary for optimal function. When a person or group pulls a Lola in that much larger kind of “dinner table,” it’s a threat to the very soul of the place. When this happens, it’s a pivotal moment of truth for the people who inhabit the high-rung space. If the culture stands up for itself in the face of the challenge with a loud, proud “that’s not how we do things here,” the attempt at idea supremacy fails and the open discourse is protected. If the culture doesn’t, the culture is ceded to the idea supremacists, and the space is transformed into an Echo Chamber… people in a classroom or company or any other officially high-rung space have an obligation to stand up for the culture and reject the challengers.“
8. Social Justice Fundamentalism (SJF) reinforces gender stereotypes
“The SJF narrative also reinforces rigid gender stereotypes. In an article called “As a Gay Child in a Christian Cult, I Was Taught to Hate Myself. Then I Joined the Church of Social Justice—and Nothing Changed,” Ben Appel writes: “Young boys and girls, not to mention impressionable adults, are being led to believe that if, say, a boy likes to wear skirts or put on makeup, he might really be a girl on the inside; or if a girl would rather play football than cheerlead, then perhaps she’s not a girl, but really a boy, or nonbinary. By means of this “progressive” ideology, we regress to a time in which the categories of “boy” and “girl” were defined in a narrow and reactionary manner.”
One meme sums up the logic like this:
Sexism: the woman should do the dishes
Feminism: men or women can do the dishes
Gender ideology: whoever is doing the dishes is a woman“
9. The ultimate safe space
“When I think of the best kind of progressivism, I think of the ultimate safe space. There should be nowhere easier to be yourself, to be weird, or to be different than a progressive environment. Progressivism, at its best, celebrates difference. There should be nowhere safer to ask dumb questions or make mistakes—because progressivism is compassionate and forgiving and super-duper humane. This is the kind of hyper-evolved environment young people growing up in a strict home with rigid, close-minded parents can’t wait to escape to.“
10. The cycle of good times and hard times
“the quote from an anonymous meme: ‘Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.’“
11. Stand up for society
“Courage level 1: …If you find yourself being forced to speak up in a training or classroom in a way that will misrepresent yourself, or being pressured to apologize about something you don’t think you should have to apologize for, see the situation for what it is: a Maoist-style struggle session. And struggle sessions are fucked up. Unless it’ll have truly dire consequences for you, stand your ground…
Courage level 2: Start saying what you really think, in private, with people you know well…
Courage level 3: Go public Class. Work. Church. Book clubs. Dinner parties. This isn’t an encouragement to become the insufferable person who always brings up politics. But if you’re in a setting where a conversation is happening and your Inner Self is screaming “I disagree!”—start saying, “I disagree.” I can almost guarantee that at least some other people in the room will secretly be harboring the same thoughts, and they’ll respect the shit out of you for saying it out loud. You could go even bigger. Start a blog. Start a podcast. Write a book. Tweet a tweet. Spend six years writing a 120,000-word ebook/audiobook. If you already have a platform, start laying your Inner Self on it… Remind yourself that whatever you’re putting out there in the world will win you the respect of some people and lose you the respect of some others. And ask yourself: whose respect do I care about?“
12. Be authentic
“The people whose respect I care about are people who think it’s cool to say what you really think, who think it’s cool to throw hypotheses out there, the people who like to play around with all kinds of ideas. If I put myself out there, in conversations, in larger settings, and publicly, I’ll end up surrounding myself with those kinds of people. Conversely, if you’re hiding your Inner Self out of fear, you’re going to end up surrounded by people who like the person you’re pretending to be. Meanwhile, the people who actually like you don’t realize they like you. I can pretty much guarantee that your Inner Self has some major admirers out there. Why not find out who they are?“
Disclosure: Links to Amazon.com are affiliate links
Leave a Reply